A Requiem For The Innocent
by Lord of the Cosmos
Summary: Following her training with the Edge Master, Seong Mi-na embarks on a new quest to save Yun-Seong and recover the Sword of Salvation. But what lies ahead is more terrible than she could have imagined. What will become of Mi-na and her friends?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Calibur, yadda yadda yadda.

The beginning of this is a bit violent, but it gets more light-hearted.

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Chapter 1

It was a frigid, stormy November night outside the Valentine estate. The wind whipped against the house and shook the windows violently, while rain poured down like hell fire upon the stoic estate's shingled roof. Within the mansion, Ivy Valentine sat curled up near a blazing fire that roared within a large brick fireplace. Around Ivy were scattered dozens of books, most of them old and tattered and looking as though they had been read thoroughly, perhaps multiple times. Ivy was at the moment furiously flipping through a lengthy book, a frenzied light visible in her blue eyes. But her searching proved to be in vain, for after a moment she sighed and dropped the book from her hands, letting it come to rest upon her bosom.

"What's the use of this all?" Ivy spoke to herself in a thick British accent. "There's nothing useful in these blasted books." As if to demonstrate her point, Ivy kicked a pile of dusty books and watched with some satisfaction as they toppled to the ground.

Outside the mansion, nature's fury began to increase, and the wind whipped against the windows with renewed vigor. Ivy gave an involuntary jolt at the sound then shook her head disapprovingly at her own foolishness. "Look at you, you silly girl. Jumping at the sound of the wind. Time to get a bit of sleep, I believe."

Ivy pushed herself to her feet and stretched out her back with a groan. Still a fairly young woman, she was very tall and wore a small, snug nightgown that showed a good deal of her long legs, as well as a portion of her chest. Ivy's silver hair seemed to shimmer in the firelight, and her fair skin stood out amid the darkness of her study. Her face was beautiful, but almost too stern, as if she constantly had something pressing on her mind.

"Oh… The bedroom is too far away," Ivy said with a yawn as she dragged herself over to a velvet couch pushed up against a row of book cases and flopped down upon the furniture. No sooner had Ivy closed her eyes than she heard a deep, gravely voice that had become all too familiar to her.

"Still searching for power within books? My daughter, you disappoint me."

Ivy's eyes snapped open and she was up in an instant, grasping around her for the comforting feel of her sword hilt. Not finding it anywhere around her, Ivy slowly looked up at her father, her body suddenly gripped by a paralyzing fear.

"Looking for that irritating little blade of yours?" Ivy's father said maliciously. "Well, look no further." And the dread pirate Cervantes emerged from the shadows, carrying Ivy's faithful sword Valentine in one hand, while in the other he gripped a sinister blade that could only be his own weapon. "This blade has caused me great trouble in the past. I'm ending that now!" With those words, Cervantes sent a jolt of some dark, unknown energy shooting through his hand, and Ivy's weapon exploded into a thousand shards.

"You- you've grown more powerful… Than ever before," Ivy managed to stammer. Her blue eyes were locked onto those of her ghoulish father, and she could not look away from his pure white eyes or his dead, gray skin.

"You know what I'm here for, my child," Cervantes spoke with murderous intent. "Your soul is rich and sweet, and it calls to me. But before I feast upon you, you will tell me all you know about Soul Edge."

"You know you will get nothing from me," Ivy forced herself to say, but she regretted the words as they were still leaving her mouth. "There must be a way out of this. I've always escaped him. I can't die now! Not when he's so powerful!" She frantically thought, her mind beginning to panic.

"So be it," Cervantes said, his face splitting into a grin of twisted anticipation. From his belt he drew a long curved dagger, with a muzzle located just beneath the blade and a trigger hidden near the top of the hilt. "You have always been a useless daughter, now I will finally be through with you."

"No!" Ivy screamed, and Cervantes hesitated, raising an eyebrow quizzically at his daughter. "I-" Ivy's breath came in deep, panicked gasps, her mind working furiously for something, anything, that could help her escape the fate that she had long feared was awaiting her. "No! I won't!"

"I grow tired of this!" Cervantes shouted suddenly, then he lunged forward and drove his dagger deep into Ivy's chest. Her shriek was cut off abruptly as the blade hit home, and she took several slow, staggering steps forward, her blue eyes bulging from pain and terror while shallow, wordless gasps emitted from her open mouth.

"What's that, my daughter?" Cervantes richly laughed. "You look as though you have something to say. Too late!" The dread pirate grasped the handle of the dagger still imbedded in Ivy's chest and pulled its trigger. The sound of a muffled gunshot cracked loudly, and Ivy's whole body gave a violent jolt. Cervantes pulled his blade back out of his dying daughter's chest, and Ivy's hands moved slowly and shakily to the gaping wound in her body. She looked up one last time at her father, and her fading blue eyes met with his merciless white ones. Then Ivy dropped to her knees before finally slouching over dead.

Cervantes felt his daughter's life fade, followed by her soul leaving that now lifeless form and beginning its ascent to the heavens. But the soul of Ivy did not get far before Cervantes reached out with his power, his insatiable hunger, and sucked Ivy's soul back to him. After consuming so many souls during his service to Soul Edge and in the years after, when he had been reborn as something far worse than a man, Cervantes had begun to understand what souls felt, what they were saying in the moments before he consumed them and even after. With Ivy he heard something he had never heard before; an innocent young girl, crying out to her father after she had misbehaved, asking for forgiveness, begging not to be punished. Cervantes grinned, then consumed her soul and fed it to his own black, twisted soul. Within his soul he could still here hers, screaming and wailing at the eternal torment it now faced. "Welcome to hell, my daughter."

His awful deed done, the dread pirate moved to a large, ornate desk on which sat a single piece of yellow, tattered paper. Cervantes picked up the document and read it quickly before speaking to himself. "Ah, so you did find something interesting. Yes… This explains everything. Why my Soul Edge left me, and what I must do… Yes… I would thank you, my daughter, but the time for that seems to have passed!" And with that the dread pirate was gone, sailing back out onto the high seas where his rule was absolute.

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Hidden high in the Himalayan mountain range, where few ventured to go and even fewer returned, there lay a hidden dojo where a great master was said to reside. Within this dojo, Seong Mina was locked in a heated duel with this mythical figure, the legendary Edge Master. Using her wooden staff that had been granted to her as a practice weapon, Mina attempted to break through the old man's defense with a series of quick jabs, but the Edge Master easily deflected the attacks with his own staff, and then smacked his opponent on the wrist, causing her to wince in pain and drop her weapon.

"Too aggressive, not enough finesse," The old man said harshly. "Again."

Mina quickly snatched her staff from the ground and attacked her master again, this time spinning her weapon in an intricate series of movements. The Edge Master surveyed her attack for a moment, then crouched low and struck out with his staff, sweeping Mina's feet out from under her. She crashed to the ground with a painful thud, and the old man stood up and dusted his hands off casually.

"Too many unnecessary motions," He said. "Again."

Grunting in frustration, Mina sprung to her feet, took several swift steps towards her teacher, then flipped high into the air, her staff held sideways with both hands and aimed towards the Edge Master's throat. The old man dropped his own staff to the ground, then grabbed Mina's weapon and pushed her backwards. Mina began her rapid descent towards the floor, but as she fell Mina wrapped her legs around the old man's waist and dragged him down with her. The result off all this was that the two combatants ended up on the dojo's floor, Edge Master lying right on top of Mina with her legs entwined around him and his face buried in her bosom. As the old man struggled to get up, Mina pulled her legs free then kicked him in the stomach, which forced the Edge Master back onto his feet.

"Heheh, pervy old man," Mina said with a mischievous grin.

"Ahem," The Edge Master coughed awkwardly, his cheeks blushing behind his full beard. "That concludes the lesson for today. That last move seemed a bit… Unnecessary, and it, ahem, would not be very effective in um… A real battle."

"I've never seen you flustered before," Mina said. "Could I've found the mighty Edge Master's weakness?"

"I was merely caught off guard is all," The old man said with a failed attempt at dignity. "And a suicidal move such as that is an unwise decision for a warrior."

"All right, all right. From now on I'll only use that move when I'm fighting old men who are easily 'caught off guard,'" Mina smirked.

The Edge Master finally gave up on words and retired to his private quarters to change out of his light-weight combat clothes and into a simple brown robe. Meanwhile Seong Mina stumbled over to one of the benches surrounding the dojo's practice arena and slumped down onto it, breathing heavily and massaging the bumps and bruises she had sustained during the long and grueling training session.

Even in her exhausted state Mina was still very pretty, and although he would never admit it even to himself, the Edge Master had long ago fallen in love with her beauty. Mina was of Korean descent and so had somewhat fair skin, along with auburn hair that was at the moment tied in a tight ponytail that fell almost to her waist. Her brown eyes often had a look of mischief about them and shown out from a pretty face that could switch from looking innocent to devious and then back again in a single moment. Mina currently wore a very revealing outfit that consisted of a small, low-cut top that showed a decent amount of her bosom as well as her well-cut abdomen, and a decorative loincloth that covered the essentials but showed the entirety of her attractive legs.

Yet despite all of her natural beauty, Seong Mina had always felt a restless sensation deep within her, a feeling of discontent that she could never quite shake. This feeling was why Mina had begun training in the use of the guan dao – a long bladed Korean spear - when she was a young child, and also why she had run away from home on three separate occasions to seek out Soul Edge, the so-called 'hero's sword.' And eventually her restless nature had led her to the Edge Master. And now, as she sat in the seclusion of her master's hideaway, Mina was gripped once again by that same familiar feeling, and decided right then that it was time for her to leave the Edge Master and resume her journey.

By the time the old man returned to the practice ring Mina was already bundled up in her large wool coat, with a bulging bag stuffed full of clothing and camping equipment slung around her back and her beloved guan dao Scarlet Thunder in her hands.

"I suppose this day had to come eventually," The Edge Master said. "I would tell you that you still require far more training, but I already know you wouldn't listen."

"You've gotten to know me pretty well, old man," Mina said. "I do feel a bit bad leaving you all alone, though. Who knows how it'll be till another young woman will come along to keep you company."

The Edge Master chuckled in response. "Oh, don't worry about me. My old bones have grown used to solitude. Although I do hope you'll come back to visit someday."

"I'll be back before you know it," Mina said confidently. "And I'll bring Yun-Seong with me."

"Ah yes, that young friend of yours," The Edge Master said. "What exactly are you planning on doing? You're not going to help that young man search for Soul Edge, are you? I told you that sword is pure evil."

"I'm actually going to find Yun-Seong and stop him before he finds Soul Edge," Mina replied. "Then if I can, I'll find the sword of salvation and use it to get rid of Soul Edge for good."

"That's quite a quest, missy," The Edge Master said. "Don't go overdoing it now. I know how you young people are."

"Alright, I get it," Mina said. There followed an uncomfortable silence for several moments before she spoke again. "Well, it's about time for me to hit the road. Don't get too lonely while I'm gone, old man."

With that Mina slid open the door that led out of the dojo and stepped out into the freezing cold of the Himalayan Mountains. She took several determined steps before she heard the Edge Master call out "Mina!" Then spun around, shocked at the old man actually addressing her by name.

"What now?" She called back.

"I, um…" The Edge Master fumbled for words. "Just be careful. And never underestimate the power of evil."

"You worry too much, old man," Mina smiled back at the Edge Master. Then the door of the dojo slid shut, and Mina began the long trek down the treacherous mountains of the Himalayas, believing with all her heart that she was ready for the long road ahead of her. Yet never in her life had she been more wrong.

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So yeah, there's the first chapter. Stick around for chapter two, it's going to kick ass or something like that.

By the way, I decided to call her "Mina" instead of "Mi-na" since it's faster to type and in my opinion it looks a little better. Pow!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Chapter 2

The snow-covered ground of the Himalayan Mountains made passage through them both slow and treacherous, and as Seong Mina trudged across the mountains she cursed the snow between her laborious breaths. Using her guan dao as a walking staff afforded Mina some small amount of relief, but after a time she collapsed to her knees, gripping her weapon tightly to avoid face-planting into the harsh snowy ground. She glanced upwards through the light snowfall and saw that the day had progressed well into the afternoon; when she had left it was still early in the morning.

"Damn you old man," Mina said to herself. "You know, it wouldn't have hurt to draw me a map. If the sun goes down and I'm still on these mountains, this coat won't be enough to keep me cozy."

Mina gazed at the landscape around her, looking vainly for the relatively safe path that she had taken to scale the mountain. What greeted her gaze was a daunting cliff face stretched across the mountain as far as her eyes could see, barring her descent. Any attempt to climb down those cliffs would be almost suicidal, but as the snow began to fall faster, Mina knew she had to reach a decision quickly.

Mina stood for a moment in indecision. "I'll look around for that path just a bit longer," She thought to herself. "I think I remember it being a little east of here…"

Her decision made, Mina resumed her trek, following the edge of the cliff face for almost another hour before she finally staggered to a halt, exhausted from this hike that was growing much longer than she had anticipated.

"I could have sworn it was to the east," Mina thought. "But I guess it might be to the west…" She finally walked to the very edge of the cliff and gazed down at the hundreds of feet of sheer rock that sloped away below her at a ridiculously steep vertical incline. Mina also noticed, however, that the cliff face was very uneven and that in many sections a person could in theory use this trait to scale safely down the mountain.

"All right, let's get this over with," Mina said, her voice filled with anticipation despite the obvious danger she was preparing to face. She tightened her gloves, secured her guan dao onto the enormous travel bag strapped around her back, then slipped gently over the edge of the mountain before gripping tightly to cliff face.

Seong Mina quickly discovered that the rocks she was scaling were not as firm as they had initially appeared. The nearly constant barrage of snow that assaulted the cliff face made it slippery, and the slow press of time had caused certain groupings of rock to crumble at the slightest touch. Mina began descending cautiously at first, gently prodding each potential foothold with her boot before she would consider it stable, but after roughly twenty minutes of this she grew impatient and began climbing downwards as a much faster pace, not testing to see which areas were safe and which would lead to harm. Inevitably, just as Mina had shifted her full body weight onto an outcropping of rock that looked stable enough, the rocks crumbled away beneath her feet and Mina was left hanging on the unforgiving cliff face by just her hands while her legs flailed about uselessly beneath her.

With her grip on the cliff face slipping, Mina chanced a glance downwards and then immediately regretted it. She was still quite a ways away from the comfort of solid ground, and the knowledge that she would be dead if she simply let her hands relax now registered strongly in Mina's mind.

"This isn't at all how I imagined going out," Mina thought. "Come on, come on, there has to be something I can do." Mina's head turned back and forth as she frantically sought for anything at all that could help her in her time of need. She gazed downwards one final time, only this time she spotted something that she had previously missed; a series of rock formations shaped like ledges that jutted out from the cliff face, each ledge located slightly below and to the right of the next. If Mina could reach those she would be safe for the time being. The only problem facing her was that the nearest one was approximately forty feet beneath her. The large traveling bag on her back flashed through Mina's mind, and she knew what she had to do.

"I know I've said this before," Mina muttered. "But let's get this over with." With that she released her grip on the rocks and fell towards the ledge below her, angling her descent so that the giant pack would hit the ground first, cushioning her thud. Then the pack hit the ledge with a mighty thud and Mina's body jolted painfully, her head whipping forward and then smashing back against her pack. She managed to gasp once before passing out.

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By the time Mina woke up it was dark, and the light snowfall of the day had turned into a blinding nighttime blizzard. Mina groaned as she felt the large lump that formed on the back of her head, and then unslung the travel bag that had saved her life. "Oh you have to be kidding me!" Mina exclaimed as she saw the damage that had been done to it. The bag had been ripped wide open, its contents scattered around the small ledge. Mina attempted to gather the contents up, but saw that many of them had been destroyed, including all of her pots and pans, several pairs of her clothing, as well as the tent she had planned on using throughout her journey.

"What a barrel of fun this journey is shaping up to be," Mina grumbled to herself. She rummaged through the tattered remains of her pack until she located a few articles of clothing that had remained relatively intact, then took her guan dao – which thankfully was undamaged – and tied it, along with the clothes, around her back using one of the bag's straps that she had torn off. With this done, Mina began the slow descent down the mountain, lowering herself carefully from one ledge to the next as the blizzard raged around her.

As she descended, Mina noticed that some of the ledges had strange markings carved into them. Those markings, combined with the fact that each ledge was positioned perfectly below and to the right of the one before it, led Mina to conclude that this makeshift staircase was man-made. "And if it's man-made, then it's going to lead me somewhere," Mina thought.

It was still dark out when Mina at last reached the bottom of the mountain, and the blizzard had subsided significantly. Mina stumbled to the ground and found herself standing on a paved stone trail that began where the final ledge ended. Rather than leading away from the Himalayas, however, the path wound its way eastward, following the curve of the mountain. "I really should just head west," Mina said out loud. "The ports of India are a good place to find information, and I know Yun-Seong went that way… But this suspense is killing me." Mina grinned mischievously then set off down the path.

Following the stone trail was fairly easy despite the layer of snow covering the ground. Set at intervals of perhaps one hundred feet were great stone pillars set on either side of the path. These pillars were composed of a dark gray rock, and each one had the head of a lizard-like creature carved into it. Each time Mina came to a pair of pillars her pace increased and a feeling of unease rose within her. Then, as Mina was hurrying past yet another set of pillars, she noticed footprints in the snow and stooped down to inspect them.

The footprints were about the same size as a normal man's prints would be, except that whatever left these prints seemed to have three large toes connected by a type of webbing, with a claw jutting out from each toe.

"Are you kidding me?" Mina said wryly. "First the lizard heads, and now these footprints. Whoever these psychos up ahead are, they're not fooling me by wearing shoes that are supposed to look like giant lizard feet." Mina stood up and took a few steps forward, but then slowed down a bit, untied her guan dao, and took it in hand. "Still… It doesn't hurt to be safe. Just in case these crazies think they can beat me."

Mina continued onwards until at last she reached the end of the trail. Where the trail ended, however, a cave that led into the mountain began. The footprints she was following led into the cave, and as Mina looked up at the cave entrance she sighed heavily; the entrance was shaped like a giant lizard head, and the way in was housed within the mouth of the stone creature.

"I get it already," Mina said as she stepped cautiously into the cave. "You guys like lizards. You don't have to ram it down my throat."

The interior of the cave was nothing like what Mina had expected. Instead of a dark, dingy cavern, the place was quite well lit by fiercely burning torches set into the perfectly smooth stone walls. Mina walked through the cave, keeping her steps soft and quiet, until she came to three intersecting hallways, two that ran to the right and left and a middle path kept going straight ahead. Naturally, Mina chose the middle one and continued to delve deeper into the great mountain. Mina came across several more of these intersections, but each time she continued along the central corridor, the torches illuminating the way forward. After what seemed like hours to Mina she arrived at a large door made from the same dark material as the pillars that had guided her to this place. The door was covered in unfamiliar symbols, and as Mina gazed at them fear welled up in her, an emotion she rarely felt. Putting that fear out of her mind, she pushed open the door and stepped beyond it, then gasped loudly.

The room was massive, with a high stone ceiling and an enormous statue of a naked woman who had stone snakes sprouting from her head. In the center of the room there was a large central platform with a walkway that led to the entryway where Mina stood, while below this platform boiled a sickly green liquid that covered the remainder of the room. The scope of the room was not what had made Mina gasp, however. Standing on the center platform were four lizard-like creatures, each one as big as a man and standing on two legs. In their scaly hands the lizards each held a metal shield and a fearsome-looking axe.

"L-lizards?!" Mina finally exclaimed, and the four reptilian creatures immediately locked their beady eyes on her.

"Our foes come to vanquish us!" A voice shouted from behind the lizards. "Kill them, my minions!"

Mina took an involuntary step backwards, but spun around as she heard a heavy breath from behind her. She turned just in time to see a fifth lizard-man who had crept up on her raising his axe for a fatal blow. Mina reacted instantly, spinning her spear so that the butt of the weapon deflected the lizard's attack, then spinning it again before plunging the the spear's blade deep into the creature's chest. Mina turned again to see the four lizard-men slowly approaching her, snarling and gnashing their teeth. Before her opponents could cut her off from the central platform Mina charged them head-on. As she reached the platform she took one step forward then spun her body in a full circle, her guan dao sweeping the area around her. Two of the lizards moved back in time to avoid the attack, but the other two failed to do so and the spear sliced through their jugulars, killing the creatures almost instantly.

Refusing to stop her assault, Mina targeted the nearest lizard-man and jabbed at it fiercely with her guan dao. The creature deflected the first several attacks, but Mina's relentless barrage finally overcame its defenses and the lizard was dead within a second. The final remaining lizard-man screamed and the charged towards Mina in a psychotic rage, flailing its axe about madly. Mina raised her guan dao as if she were about to stab at her foe, but at the last moment she lowered her weapon and stepped aside and the lizard-man went right past her, unable to stop his forward moment in time. "Fell for it!" Mina shouted triumphantly as she kicked the creature's back and sent it flying into the green liquid. The lizard plunged into it then began screaming shrilly as the liquid burned away the creature's scaly skin.

Mina took a moment to regain her breath after her swift victory before she remembered the voice that had ordered the lizard-men into battle against her. She looked up quickly and saw an old man with long white beard and a crimson robe cowering at the far corner of the platform.

"Ah! Don't hurt me!" The man shouted as Mina walked towards him slowly, holding her guan dao behind her, parallel with the width of her body and pushing the long hilt of the weapon up against her rear end as she smiled mockingly. "I thought you were here to destroy me and my clan, but I see now I was mistaken."

"I do feel a bit bad for what I did to those lizards," Mina said, ignoring the man's explanation. "But that was pathetic. I beat them without even taking my coat off." Mina spun her spear around her body then pointed it straight towards the old man.

"Please, have mercy," The man protested. He took a couple steps backwards then tripped and fell onto his back, his hands held up in front of his face in a pathetic attempt at self-defense.

"I could never kill someone in cold blood like this," Mina thought. "But if make him think I can, maybe he'll tell me what's going on around here." Mina slammed her right foot down on the old man's chest and held her guan dao mere inches above the old man's head. "Okay, start talking," She said. "First off, what is the clan of yours? And more importantly, how did those lizards, you know… Happen?"

"This clan I have inherited is the Fygul Cestemus Clan. The lizard-man you defeated were created by my clan. I'm sorry, but I can't say anymore that that," The old man explained. "I will say, however, that you are, um, an extremely skilled warrior, and you looked quite, ah, graceful on the battlefield."

"Why thank you," Mina said sarcastically. "Your attempt to suck up to me was quite a success. But continuing on, what exactly is this Fygul Ceste-something clan? And what do you mean you inherited it?"

"My clan worships Ares, the god of war. We were once a large clan, and we created many dark and terrible creatures under our god's name. Then one day, our greatest creation, a golem whose purpose was to locate the sword Soul Edge and deliver to Ares himself, went berserk and attacked our main shrine, completely destroying it. Since then the golem has been hunting the remnants of our clan relentlessly. This was one of clan's last shrines, but now it has fallen to a mere human. The Fygul Cestemus is finished…" The old man spoke these final words with great sadness.

"Hey, I may be a 'mere human,' but I bet I could teach that golem of yours of a few lessons," Mina said defensively.

The old man was about to retort when his eyes suddenly bulged in their sockets and he stared blankly past Mina as though he had gone into shock.

"What are you-" Mina's sentence ended abruptly as a pair of giant hands folded around her throat.

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Oh noes! A cliffhanger!

By the way, reviews are greatly appreciated.


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